1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to image forming apparatuses, and particularly relates to an image forming apparatus and a method of allocating memory areas which make efficient use of memory resources.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, an image forming apparatus (multifunction peripheral) that combines a plurality of machine-specific functions such as those of a printer, a copier, a facsimile machine, a scanner, etc., in one device has become widely popular. This multifunction peripheral is provided with a display unit, a print unit, an imaging unit, etc., in one device, and is also provided with four applications corresponding to a printer, a copier, a facsimile machine, and a scanner, respectively. Switching of the applications provides for the multifunction peripheral to perform any desired function of a printer, a copier, a facsimile machine, and a scanner.
Since the multifunction peripheral operates by use of various applications that run based on programs, addition of a new function or the like can easily be made by updating the programs.
As is often employed in personal computers or the like, updating of the programs may be performed through networks such as the Internet. That is, it may be done by connecting to a server where an updating program is stored and by acquiring (downloading) the updating program from the server.
In this case, the updating program downloaded from the server is laid out in memory, and is written into EEPROMs (electrically erasable and programmable ROM) such as a flash memory for program updating.
Since the updating program downloaded from the server is laid out in the memory, there is a need for a memory area in which the updating program is laid out.
This memory area is part of the memory space that is acquired and released for applications or the like to carry out processes. The operating system (OS) is responsible for the management of memory areas that are acquired and released. It follows that applications acquire and release memory areas by use of system calls provided by the OS.
Further, memory devices implemented on a machine is generally limited to a minimum memory size in order to suppress costs.
As a result, the provision of an extra memory in a multifunction peripheral for relatively less frequent processing such as program updating is not a preferred option in consideration of cost factors. Whilst that is the case, an image forming apparatus requires as much memory space as possible in order to process image data which generally has a large data size.
Accordingly, there is a need for an image forming apparatus and a method of acquiring memory areas which make efficient use of memory resources provided in the image forming apparatus.